Giving up our dog - any advice?

[alidew]

We have made the difficult decision to have our dog rehomed. We've only ever parted with a dog before due to death but our reasons for rehoming are genuine.
Does anyone have any experience of doing this and advice? I don't have any friends who could take him on so am looking at Dog's Trust or similar locally.

Have you any family /neighbours who could help out? Happy to walk him with mine if you live in a small seaside place?

I don't think he would be good with doggy daycare or with a walker as he is no good with people other than family. I'm the only one who can successfully put a lead on him without being bitten (I know, I know). Vet has advised PTS too, and she knows him :-(

He would very quickly get used to dog walker.
I was a dog walker, got told all the time that their dog didn't like people who were t family and wouldn't want to go with me etc...once they'd been out with me once on a group walk with other dogs they were thrilled to see me every time.
I remember lying down on the floor with treats in my hand to get one rescue lab to approach me, he was growling and snarling etc before he realised I was ok.

Seems such a shame to put down a healthy dog who is good with other dogs etc just because you're going to work.

My ddog hated all but family. When I met dh he started taking her out. Won her over pretty quick. What a horrible time op...

This all sounds a bit odd to me.

He lightens up when he sees children yet vet is recommending putting him to sleep as he is aggressive to people.

I feel that you need to get qualified behavioural help to get your dog assessed and a behavioural plan in progress so that he can be rehomed. They should also be able to give you a report to help with rehoming or a plan if you can not rehomed in time.

This situation is way to common in people rehoming dogs without correct backup and when circumstance change the dogs suffers. I am not getting at you OP but hope that others reading this thread would consider what they would do in similar circumstances.

So called rescuing dogs from abroad and then adding them to the rehoming load in the UK is not a way forward.

So frustrating, I'd take him off your hands in a heartbeat but we already have two rescues and a third child on the way.

I got s behaviourist in. First thing I did. Have u tried this. They can be really helpful. It helped with several things for a while.

That is strange that Battersea said they might not take him because he needed to be muzzled for the vet. I got my dog from them and they told me that she had guarding issues in the home that I would need to work on and that I might need to muzzle her for the vet's (they'd had her 3 months by then and she'd been so difficult in kennels, coming forward growling and barking, that they sent her home at night with a member of staff to try to cheer her up - she'd obviously improved a lot with them). My dog is a lovely dog now but I still have to be careful when she goes to the vet's. Perhaps you could work on the dog's confidence for the three-month wait and get a behaviourist to help with the fear of men in dark clothing? I thought Battersea were quite impressive.

Have you spoken to any local behaviourists?
We worked with a lady on one of our dogs and she had a pack of 8 'red alert' dogs, who otherwise would have been pts had she not adopted them.

I think this thread illustrates why it is such a bad idea to adopt from abroad.

Often have behavioural issues and absolutely zero support from the rescue leaving overstretched British rescue to pick up the pieces.

OP, unless there is some reason why it is absolutely unavoidable keep the dog.

Most rescues will either refuse to take a dog that shows aggression or, like Battersea have said will just PTS.

And British rescue isn't a nice place to be, the dogs are almost always intensely stressed and some wait years for a new loving home.

I was unable to rescue from UK due to their rules about not allowing families with toddlers to adopt.

My two were Cyprus street dogs, fostered both before deciding to adopt. My mum also has one Cypriot rescue and one Romanian.
All four dogs have no behaviour issues, were initially slightly nervous of people they didn't know but quickly settled. And they're all wonderful with babies, toddlers and older.
The rescues we got ours from have kept in touch and love to see photos etc.

Then imo you should have waited until your children's were older if you really wanted a rescue.

Healthy British rescues are pts in their thousands every year, it is absolutely appalling to be importing extra dogs in when so many British dogs are dying.

It isn't even fixing the problem.

You going to import all of the millions of foreign dogs over and rehome them here and the problem will go away?
No.
The only proper, long term answer is education, penalties and neutering.

You struck it lucky with your foreign rescues.
So many threads on here where people have 'adopted' foreign dogs and they have had behavioural issues outside the expertise of their new owners.
Shock horror the 'rescue' never cares and the dog is either PTS or one of our rescues which are all at breaking point as it is takes it on where it rots for the rest of its life as no one can offer it the home it needs.

Not to mention the rise in previously unheard diseases over there that we are now seeing here as imported dogs are brought over unknowingly infected.

There is a good and valid reason why reputable rescues don't rehome to families with toddlers.

The majority of dog bites are to children under 5 by the family dog and many, if not most adult dogs find young children wearing at best.

I wanted my kids to experience growing up with dogs, and no way in hell would I buy from a breeder.

My dogs haven't brought diseases, they haven't caused anyone any problems and they haven't 'replaced' a british rescue seeing as a british rescue wouldn't let us adopt!

These were dogs needing a home, I don't GAF which country they're from.

And by your own argument no one should be rescuing British dogs either if the only answer is neutering! Don't rescue ANY dogs til the UK bans all breeding of dogs.

First of all a good breeder doesn't add to any problems.
They will take back any dog they have bred at any point in the dogs life so it never ends up in rescue, they will be doing the necessary genetic/screening tests to guarantee freedom from inherited disease and they will be taking care to select parent dogs of stable friendly temperament and socialise the puppies which puts the chances of them staying in a happy home higher.

Your personal dogs might not have brought disease but a great many imported dogs have and do.
A number of vets have spoken out on the issue.

On the rescue spaces, what about all the successful overseas adoptions from people who were declined with kids who would have gone on to adopt a British dog at a later date and now won't?

Or at the other end of the spectrum the people who adopted a gone wrong foreign and are now sworn off rescue completely?

In countries like Spain, Cyprus etc dogs are not valued, failed hunting dogs, unwanted pets etc are cast out entire on the street and keep breeding and breeding.
You cannot physically take enough of these dogs abroad to stop the problem of dogs on the street.
You are talking about millions and millions of dogs.
Many of which are badly traumatised and will never make good pets.

Soon as a group of dogs are shipped more are abandoned or birthed on the streets.

In order to stop the problem the street dogs need to be neutered and heavy penalties need to be put in place to punish those who dump and/or abuse them and people need educating as to why their behaviour is wrong.

Until that happens dogs will continue to be abandoned and abused.
Shipping them abroad is nice for those few dogs (who don't end up PTS) but it does nothing at all to tackle the actual problem.

I suppose there is a case for the immediate cessation of breeding until the rescues have found homes but then Britain has a different dog problem to the overseas countries.

Britain doesn't have a culture of street dogs out breeding in need of neutering but it does have a large population of people that breed substandard dogs for all the wrong reasons.
The answer imo would be tighter regulation on breeders.

Wow, I can't believe you are actually defending breeders in the UK who are pumping more dogs into the world when there are already so many without homes. You're completely contradicting yourself.

Like I said, a dog is a dog is a dog no matter what country it's from. You're taking about foreign dogs like a bigot would talk about immigrants. I literally don't care if the dog was born in the uk or in Africa, it's just as deserving.

I rescued my dogs because it mutually benefited me and them...they were in need of a home and I was in need of dogs. I'm not trying to "solve the problem" of stray foreign dogs.

There's a massive "problem" in this country with people paying breeders for puppies when there are "millions and millions" of dogs without a home already.

Good breeders are not the problem.

The bigot immigrant comment is just mad.
The two just not comparable. At all.

I am against foreign dog rescue because it doesn't change the terrible plight of overseas dogs aside from a tiny percentage and it endangers British dogs (from disease and pts through lack of homes) and as this thread shows, when it goes wrong, which it frequently does as the dogs are often traumatised, there is no help available at all.

And you don't think british breeders endanger british dogs from taking homes that British rescues need?

There is no such thing as a good breeder.
It's totally immoral and unforgivable.

I don't understand how you can differentiate between a 'british' dog and a 'foreign' dog anyway. They're all dogs. Not bloody citizens of the countries they were born in

Good breeders take their dogs back at any point for any reason so they will never add to rescue.

There are over a hundred different breeds out there and bred for different purposes, sometimes the sort of dog that is the best fit for a person does not exist in rescue.

Poor breeders who breed for money and/or recognition are bad and definately contribute through their refusal to take dogs back and through breeding dogs of poor temperament and/or health that people can't cope with.

But I think it's unfair to blame the good breeders that work hard to produce healthy, stable dogs and take their dogs back.

Obviously they are all dogs

My problem is not with the country, my problem is that shipping the lucky few dogs out perpetuates their suffering and because the dogs often harbour diseases not usually seen here they put dogs here, and humans as well actually as at least one of the diseases vets are now reporting is zoonotic, at risk.

Because the dogs are often traumatised and very, very few, if any, of these 'rescues' home check properly the adoptions often fail and because the 'rescues' won't take the dogs back the British rescues, which already are fit to bursting are expected to try and fit them in.
I don't think that is fair.

Especially when thousands of dogs with no behavioural problems are pts every year.

I also think that because a lot of these dogs are traumatised and too much to handle it can put people off rescuing in future too.

There is no such thing as a good breeder
It's totally immoral and unforgivable.
In your view, when would it be acceptable for people to breed dogs deliberately again? Once every single street dog/dog in rescue in the UK/Europe/the world has found a home? And then what? We'll have lost hundreds of years of selective breeding for purpose.

There needs to be a massive push to encourage neutering and only responsible breeding in those countries with a street dog issue. To blame sensible, thoughtful breeders in Britain for the dog overpopulation problem in Romania is just perverse.

breeding for working purposes, fine. Police/Army/Farming/Guidedogs/Scent dogs.

Breeding for pets, just no. There's enough dogs in the world already.

Breeders who sell 'pets' can never be thoughtful or responsible, or they wouldn't be breeding in the first place.

breeding for working purposes, fine. Police/Army/Farming/Guidedogs/Scent dogs.
Really?!? What an unreasonable, patronising statement.
What If I don't want a rescue dog? What if I don't want to rehome a dog with no knowledge of it's background? If I have the means to provide a secure lifetime commitment, to a specific breed of dog, of my choosing, I will do. I've read as many posts on here about rescues being returned to rescue, as I have purchased pups being returned to the breeders, so rescues are not always the right option, or choice, for everyone.